PubMed: MeSH Subject Headings

MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) are the U.S. National Library of Medicine's standard terms used to index article contents. Using these terms in your search helps you to access more consistent and targeted results related to your topic.

Searching using MeSH returns all articles related to a concept and its synonyms (myocardial infarction/heart attack) and spelling variations (estrogen/oestrogen).

• Link to a MeSH Video Tutorial
• Link to a Introduction to MeSH

When searching for a term such as flu in the MeSH Database, the results include:

1. The standard MeSH subject(s) for your term, e.g. Influenza, human.
2. A display of Subheadings
   • If none are selected, articles are returned with or without the subheadings.
   • If two or more are selected, articles may include any of the subheadings.
3. A display of the MeSH subject in the hierarchy of related terms: